The climate criminals in the US Government have names, listed off by an Exxon lobbyist, but still they aren’t being held to account.
The world we live on is burning. Regina frequently has a red Sun in the sky from thick forest fire smoke, making us look more smoggy than Los Angeles.
Back in 2012, there was a problem:
Provincial water too polluted, says research
Back then, the SaskParty was promising to address climate change with a plan that included a 20% emissions cut below 2006 pollution levels, by last year, 2020. They soon deleted that target.
Then this happened, and continues to happen:
Sask. leads country in per capita greenhouse gas emissions
“Provincial environment minister says climate plan needs time to work”
No! It doesn’t. When we give the SaskParty time for their plans to work, they make emissions worse, not better. And they promote their failed Environment Ministers to party leader too.
Other jurisdictions are too Canadian/polite to give us the F grade our Petrostate deserves.
That’s from back in 2015, and my understanding is that it’s been addressed to some degree. For the latest be sure to follow an expert like Prof. Eaton.
The news around the world has been more awful than usual, with the President of the USA purportedly getting over his COVID-19 infection, while on dexamethasone (a powerful, potentially mind altering steroid) threatening to kiss guys in the crowd of his maskless rally.
The UK is announcing plans, and at the same time saying they won’t work.
And here in Saskatchewan there’s an election underway, both for the provincial and municipal governments. I have some hope that Regina might elect a few new Councillors, but there’s a religious homophobe running who shamed the Public School Board recently, and no clear, strong alternative to the present right wing mayor. Jim Elliott is running, and would make a good mayor for the years ahead, but Regina’s voters are largely too out of touch with our planetary ecological breakdown to realize that.
But the provincial election is a corrupt dumpster fire. The media continues their effort to shut out the Greens and any other party. And no wonder. Look who pays them:
Big media outside of Saskatchewan is required to get great coverage of what’s going wrong here.
A couple years ago when the IPCC gave us approximately 12 years to get emissions way down, I started using the hashtag #TwelveYears on stories related to how far we have to go yet now I’ve been using #TenYears, but I’m being too conservative. #EightYears is our presently calculated deadline to have a 50% chance of protecting a survivable planet.
Notable climate crisis musician and activist Laura Stewart in the Leader Post explaining why climate activists aren’t hypocrites for pressuring governments to take action they cannot personally:
leaderpost com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor-oct-17-2019-climate-change-protesters-arent-the-major-emitters
Climate protesters aren’t hypocrites
Regina’s climate protesters are not hypocrites. They demand government action on problems their personal actions can’t touch.
Critics say, “Pick up litter.” Some protesters do that. Some attempt zero-waste living. But of Saskatchewan’s 76 megatonnes of emissions, the “Waste and Others” sector makes up only three per cent.
Yes, many protesters bike, walk, or bus to the marches. But “Passenger Transportation” produces just six per cent of emissions. And it’s a nine-hour bike ride to the legislature from my home town.
What personal actions could drive down the 34 per cent of emissions from “Oil and Gas” production? During one march, a critic suggested turning off the gas to my house, but that’s consumption — counted in the “Buildings” sector at only four per cent.
How about reducing the 19 per cent of emissions from “Electricity”? Eliminating all residential electricity would cut only about three per cent of overall emissions. And critics complain about protesters’ cell phones.
“Agriculture” produces 22 per cent of emissions — and $13 billion in exports. Many protesters avoid eating meat — another partial solution. But about nine per cent of Saskatchewan’s overall emissions come from crop production, because it releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times worse than carbon dioxide.
We need government actions to make high emissions costly, make lowering emissions pay, and make zero emissions an affordable choice. Otherwise, we subsidize our present prosperity at the expense of our children’s future.
The most important personal action you can take to help solve the climate emergency? Talk about it.
Laura Stewart, Regina
This is a subject that I’ve discussed years ago too.
The global climate strike inspired by Greta Thunberg and other young leaders concerned about their futures, is underway.
That prediction/lie didn’t work out too well.
On Wednesday, Todd D. Stern, the United States special envoy for climate change, who was in Beijing for talks, said that some Chinese officials had expressed concern about whether President Obama’s successor would ensure that the United States was committed to the global climate accord reached in Paris in December.
Mr. Stern said he had tried to reassure the officials. “I think it would be highly surprising to me if anybody elected were to try to pull the United States out of that,” he said at a news briefing.
– 2016
“On June 1, 2017, United States President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change”
https://twitter.com/JulieAnnSilver/status/1072177628327464960
CBC and other media need to recognize the following as true if we’re going to advance as a society. It’s likely to make them, and you, uncomfortable. Growth isn’t automatic and easy.
– Canada has committed genocide against First Nations people.
– Climate change has become a crisis.
– We won’t survive as a civilization this century without significant, yet still possible, changes to our daily lives. That means changes to our economy.
– The American President should not be quoted in headlines because more often than not he’s lying to manipulate people.
– Billionaires have too much power, and far too much money and need to return it to governments for massive investment in social programs like healthcare for Americans without any.
“all these billionaires and this 9 year old has to pay off his schoolmates’ lunch [debt]”
Jun 10
Jeet Heer (Retweeted Waleed Shahid):
“The Koch Brothers understand, and other billionaires do too, that centrist Dems are a crucial line of defense in stopping social democracy.”
– Canadian Conservative politicians have no feasible plan to deal with pollution, and their party leadership opposes real action to reduce pollution on time.
– Conservative Premiers put their federal party’s electoral wishes ahead of national unity and cooperation.
– Regina lacks the transportation infrastructure to meet its 100% renewable by 2050 target.
– The 2050 target is insufficient to meet our objective to survive the climate crisis.
https://twitter.com/BillyArmagh/status/1115344062628937729
“I want my tax dollars to go to education, healthcare, police and fire services, and infrastructure…not to profitable private businesses. There is something very wrong with this.” – Ms. Kurtz
This should be a joke. Loblaws/Superstore conspired to fix prices on bread. Why aren’t they exempt from Government funding for a period of time after that [unprosecuted] crime? Hmm, where have I recently heard about a large too-big-to-fail Canadian company attempting to evade prosecution for a crime against society, by appealing to the Liberals (and Conservatives)?
Minister McKenna, you lack good judgement if you thought of promoting this shame with a media event, and posting it on your Twitter. Corruption like this is supposed to be a private moment. “Let them eat price-fixed cake products from the Weston bakeries.”
I like energy efficiency as much as the next guy. Okay, probably a bit more than the typical guy. Yet I have a bit of a problem with the Government of Canada giving money to effing Loblaws to improve their energy efficiency. Is there no Ma & Pa grocer left in Canada to give these millions of dollars to to accomplish the same reduction in emissions, while requiring Loblaws meet a minimum standard, or have them simply respond to the [too-low] carbon pricing that just went into effect? You know, the one you put in place to inspire businesses to find innovative ways to build in efficiencies? Asking the Liberals for money isn’t innovative, nor is Liberals paying billionaires more millions of dollars. Those are older than my record collection.
You may be a Liberal reading this, and thinking, “You can’t say that, what if it helps the Conservatives win because this shows that the Liberals are beholden to Big Money, and that they support corrupt businesses with Government dollars.” Except you wouldn’t say that out loud because you’d use a thought bubble if it even crossed your mind.
I leave you with the wisdom of The Walking Eagle:
BONUS:
I read this blog post for you:
A sorry excuse for a rally is under way in Regina today. It’s a grouchy band of malcontents and [muted] racists who share a dislike for science and the Prime Minister.
https://twitter.com/saskboy/status/1112915032248143872
The cowards deleted their racist post that Meili sarcastically called “brilliant”.
Among the supporters of the corporate ralliers are former Yellow Vest rally attendee Premier Moe, and this Yellow Vest rallier Jason LeBlanc who spoke in Ottawa at the event Scheer and Faith Go|dy spoke at.
LeBlanc says to the NDP “I thought we were friends.” “I’m just a farmer“, yet he’s acting as a mouthpiece for Oil and Gas AKA the SaskParty.
“I am passionate about auctions, but I am more passionate about survival in farming.”
Too bad he’s not passionate about survival of the humans who’d farm, and the climate required to do farming in Saskatchewan.
Who are the people he mentioned there?
Kevin Hursh was a TV agriculture journalist well known in Saskatchewan, and last year he wrote something awful for the newspaper, which I panned.
Krause denies being a climate change denier, but is a darling for their cause because her name is on Deniers’ lips anytime the subject of foreign money for environmental causes comes up.
LeBlanc, from Estevan, also promotes notable Denier Patrick Moore:
“@EcoSenseNow Mar 31
I am not a con man or a special interest, and I don’t take taxpayer’s $. I am a “real scientist” with a real PhD in science. There is zero hard evidence that CO2 is the cause [blah blah blah]”
Now if you want to hear from sensible people, this sums up the ralliers’ situation if they are not actively farming:
D. Bonnycastle:
”All this kerfuffle for 4.6 cents. Either they are idiots or they are trying to distract from the unprotested 25 cent raise for the oil companies.”
https://twitter.com/saskboy/status/1113691662373597185
A journalist asked me if I was going to protest the rally in person, and I haven’t decided yet, probably not. A lot of the people there are feeling their livelihood is being threatened, emboldened by bad political leaders like Moe, and several of them are racists and fascists. I’ve never attended an anti-fascist counter-protest before, and I wouldn’t do so half-assedly.
There happens to be a child-led protest at the Legislature the following morning, at 10am-11am for the Fridays for Future global strike movement. Kids who are fed up with political inaction are striking on Fridays, since schooling won’t matter too much if their world is shattered by climate change disasters in the coming decades.
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff 